Today, files having different display sizes and levels of resolution for images and video may be attached to e-mail messages using a personal computer (PC) and sent to other personal computers via the Internet or an intranet. Also, files may be sent from one location to another over a network, for example, a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN) utilizing file transfer protocol (FTP) or other protocols. The files may be utilized in conjunction with certain media players such as personal computers, digital versatile disc (DVD) players, personal digital assistants (PDAs), handheld computers and personal computer tablets, for example.
Depending on the size of a video file or an image file, the content may be displayed in different resolution, color content and/or display size. Files are often sent from a source location to a destination location without addressing a consumption quality of the file. Exemplary consumption quality characteristics or media parameters, may include, display resolution, amount of bandwidth to be utilized to transfer the file, the time required to transfer the file, and any cost that may be associated with transferring the file.
For example, a source system such as a personal computer may attempt to send a high-resolution image file to a destination system such as a personal computer over a low bandwidth network, for example, using a dial-up service with a 56K modem. Often, on such networks, throughput is much less that 56 Kbps and as a result, higher resolution image files may require a significantly greater amount of time to facilitate file transfer. The image file may be a very large file of the order of megabits and may not be compressed any further. In this regard, the high-resolution image file may take a significantly greater amount of time to be transferred from the source personal computer to the destination personal computer. Accordingly, a higher bandwidth network connection, for example, a fiber optic network or Ethernet network may be required to transfer the image file in a relatively short amount of time and may cost more than a low bandwidth connection such as a dialup-connection.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.